This invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing buttered toast.
In preparing a slice of buttered toast according to current commercial practice, it is common to utilize an electric toaster to toast the slice of bread with the butter thereafter being spread on the slice by hand. In high volume commercial catering operations such as, for example, those conducted in restaurants adjacent main highways or at travel terminals, significant amounts of waitresses' time are wasted in performing the manual buttering operation and this problem is particularly acute at busy periods.
In an attempt to obviate this problem, certain prior machines have been devised for conducting toasting and buttering operations on the slice of bread automatically without a manual butter spreading step. Such prior devices have, however, significantly failed to come into general use because their construction was, in almost all instances, attended by two major disadvantages.
The first of these disadvantages is that the prior devices have generally required the butter to be spread, to be maintained in a melted condition to permit it to be sprayed or brushed onto the bread. However, as is well known, butter rapidly tends to go rancid when maintained at the elevated temperature necessary to maintain it in melted condition. As a result, it might frequently be necessary to change the butter while significant amounts still remained unused in order to avoid problems of rancid butter. This could involve a considerable and costly wastage of butter as well as requiring frequent inoperative periods of the machine while the butter was changed.
The other major disadvantage associated with the prior buttering machines has been a hygiene problem. In equipment of this type, it is necessary at the conclusion of a day's operations for the parts of the machine coming into contact with foodstuff to be thoroughly cleaned to remove butter smears, toast crumbs, and the like, which might provide a breeding ground for germs if left untouched. However, the prior machines have generally been of such complex construction that access to the parts to be cleaned could not readily be obtained by the relatively mechanically unskilled personnel customarily employed in commercial catering establishments.